Enoch Cree Nation & City of Edmonton Partnership

Enoch Cree Nation and the City of Edmonton, a CEDI Phase II partnership, began working together through CEDI in September 2016. Soon after, the two communities began drafting Terms of Reference (TOR), a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and continued joint work on the Boundary Interface Protocol Strategy (BIPS). In March 2017, the communities shared a culturally-significant afternoon including a pipe ceremony, sweat, drumming and feast intended to deepen understanding and prepare elected officials and staff for this significant partnership and MOU signing. Approximately fifty elected officials and staff from Enoch Cree Nation and the City of Edmonton and over 350 staff, community members and special guests attended the MOU celebration and signing.

Since then, Enoch Cree Nation and the City of Edmonton have further refined the original fifteen themes for collaboration, to the following four themes: housing, green energy, tourism (including cultural tourism) and sports and recreation. The partners continue to meet to share current plans and explore collaboration opportunities in the development of the areas listed above.

In addition, joint work on BIPS continues which outlines protocols and facilitates the development of the borders of Enoch Cree Nation, City of Edmonton and Parkland County. Finally, the partnership is actively working towards a potential opportunity co-manage a Provincial park.

Enoch Cree Nation and the City of Edmonton are the first CEDI partnership to document their partnership’s process through an extensive Legacy Binder. This includes important background information such as, comparison of governance structure, services, and jurisdiction between the two governments, economic development strategies, and CEDI workshop reports. Many other CEDI partnerships have been inspired by the Legacy Binder, and have created their own archiving processes.

Together, Corina Hollingworth, Enoch Cree Nation (left) and Morgan Bamford, City of Edmonton presented the partnership’s commitment to a long-term partnership that outlasts their participation in CEDI. As the largest CEDI partnership, this story of sincere commitment and respect for each other was very inspirational to many who attended the Forum.